Welcome to the Friday edition of the HOT BARN REPORT
Heard ONLY on American radio stations across the nation and online at hotbarnreport.com!
Karina Jones, Field Director for R-Calf USA joins us each Friday from her ranch in the heart of Nebraska covering new and important cattle industry news and policy.
I don’t know what to call today’s episode, “Stranger than fiction” or “Cattle Industry News.” Nevertheless thank you for tuning into to the Hot Barn Report!
Politico broke a really big story this week that had me asking myself, “how is this America?”
Over the past few years a handful of lawmakers have been urging the USDA to stop buying meat from JBS amidst decades of scandal, bad business dealings, and perhaps the fact that they are a foreign company. Remember, I thought we trying to get back to “America First” vibe. A few months ago Politico obtained USDA Secretary Vilsack’s response to these lawmakers, via a FOIA request.
“Removing a firm from government-wide procurement would potentially impair competitive choice for the taxpayer in securing affordable food for the range of needs that government must provide for, from school lunches to meals for our soldiers,” Vilsack wrote.
Vilsack’s letter illustrates how the government’s options have become painfully limited in an agriculture sector heavily concentrated on everything from poultry to cereal. JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, conducts extensive business with the federal government. The company’s subsidiaries and contractors have had many problems. Poultry company Pilgrim’s Pride, a JBS USA subsidiary, pleaded guilty in 2021 to federal price-fixing charges, paying more than $100 million in fines. Lest we not forget that JBS had to pay a fine of $256 million in 2020 to resolve charges of bribing Brazilian government officials.
US Lawmakers have also complained about the foreign-owned company’s receipt of millions in pandemic bailout money.
Under the law governing federal purchases of supplies and services, a contractor may be cut off from federal contracts for conduct including antitrust violations or bribery. This is not the first administration who has been raked over the coals about businesses dealings with JBS. Overall, JBS has received nearly $400 million in federal contracts since October 2017 for providing food and services for programs including nutrition assistance, school and summer meal programs as well as food banks, a USDA spokesperson said. Great job on this story, Politico!
It seems stranger than fiction to me that our own government would want to take tax payer money to do business with a foreign corporation. Not only that but they buy food, BEEF, with American tax payer money to feed our military and children and the USDA has no idea if it is of domestic or Brazilian origin while admitting they have no other choice because well, there are so few choices to buy from! That’s enough for today, my blood pressure is rising!
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